THREE Irish teenagers have succeeded in reaching the regional finals of the Google Science Fair.

Claire Gregg (13) from Dublin, Louis Madden (16) from Monaghan, and Rose Anne O'Mahony (16) from Cork have beaten thousands of other international entrants to reach this stage of the competition.

Claire, a pupil at Loreto College, St. Stephen's Green, devised a project which aimed to use agent-based modelling to test factors in how humans behave which impact on the spread of infectious diseases, such as Ebola.

When she is older she wants to work with computers - "What I really want is to change the world in one way or another because I love programming."

Louis goes to school at St. Macartan's College in Monaghan. His project undertook to build equipment essential for conducting genetic research using cheap and recycled materials.

Louis hopes to pursue a career in genetics or medicine.

Mary Rose attends Christ Kings girls school in Cork. Her project questioned if there was a way to definitively calculate whether the threat of climate change could be reduced or eliminated.

She fears that the effects of CO2 emissions are accumulating and may in turn cause irreversible damage to our planet.

On Aug 4th, Google will select 20 international finalists from the pool of 90 regional finalists.

The Grand Prize Winner will receive a Google scholarship worth $50,000 which is intended to further their scientific education.

Google received thousands of submissions from almost 100 countries worldwide.

The top five countries to submit projects this year were India, US, Brazil, Turkey and the UK